Disappointing 3000m (9:10,42 min)
On Thursday I ran a 3000m here in Jyväskylä as a track season opener and finished in ~9:10mins (2nd place, but that's unimportant). I am rather frustrated with this performance even if it was the first race on track for about 9 months and the marathon is only 3 1/2 weeks old.
The first 2 kilometers were still ok (2:59,9 + 3:02,9min) and it would still have been possible to run sub 9 minutes. However, this shouldn't happen and the last km was 3:08. Especially the last round I was thinking I am standing and the lactate took it's toll. It seems that 2 speed work-outs are not enough to prepare a "short" track race. The positive thing is, that I have an aim of improving this time by a big margin throughout the season (there are few more 3000s I am planning) and should accomplish this aim pretty easily - assuming a good training and more specific speed work on the track. On the other hand I'm a bit scared, because it won't be easy to run the 5000m somewhere close to 15 minutes (that's one of the main aims for the track season). Now I have 2 weeks time before I run the next track race. When I'm running in spikes (today I ran in my normal training shoes) some faster times should be in reach. Talking about shoes: in the 3000m race today there was a guy running barefoot (as you can see on the pictures) - and he was really running fast (~9:15). Respect, Respect.

800m into the race - trying to find a rhythm but never found it (all pictures presented by Jaakko Nieminen)

after 2000 meters: I had contact with leader but on the last lap I was dying and had to settle with second place and a bad time

Kettuhölkkä: 1st place in 45:28 (~13,3K)
On Saturday I had the first running competition in Finland following my marathon debut 3 weeks ago in Mainz. It was a rather small, local competition with only a handful of competitors, so it was not the biggest challenge to win the competition but rather to get a good workout. I ran the ~13,3km (it was supposed to be 14km but the last 2km would have been in an impressive 4:23min) all on my own and could set my own pace all the way. The kilometer splits were between 3:20 and 3:33 minutes if the kilometer signs were right and the final time 45:28. Team mate and driver Kimmo aka. skylark took second place and secured the double of the Vaajakosken Kuohu runners.
Today was "long" run (~20K) with Kimmo and Timo in the morning plus a short evening run (6K). The Sauna afterwards was great and I can feel that Sauna improves my recovery a lot.

Alte Liebe rostet nicht
The last couple of days I did some training sessions I haven't done for a long time: Wednesday I was on the track with a couple of other guys and did 5 800meter-repeats. The legs were felt pretty ok (better than expected) but the breathing was quite hard. The times were surprisingly fast (from 2:26 for the first to 2:20min for the last), but I could always run behind the guys (they ran 1000s) and in the group it is always much easier to keep the pace. Only in the 4th run I had problems, because we kicked out way to fast (33,5 sec for the first 200) and after 400 meter my stomach shut down so that I had to stop after 600 meters. Otherwise everything was fine and I'm excited about the development in the next weeks. If everything is going well I should be at 100% (i.e. run the full program) in 2 weeks.
Thursday I made Orienteering (kuntorasti) for the first time after some years. It was a great cross-training but I still don't have a lot of map-reading skills, so that I'm usually running much to fast and afterwards recognise that I ran way too far. Without running mate Kimmo I would have been even worse but we met after few checkpoints and decided to run together for a while.

Back in Finland
Yesterday evening, short after midnight, I arrived back in a chilly (3°C cold) Jyväskylä. The day was quite long: waking up short after 6 to make the last run in Zwickau with my brother and a workmate, afterwards breakfast with my brother and his with and then to the train station: from Zwickau to the airport Frankfurt-Hahn (altogether 7hours). In the airplane from Frankfurt-Hahn to Tampere the stewardess asked me: "In case of an emergency, could you help us evacuate passengers?" First I was shocked, but then I said yes and got a place at the emergency exit - those are the best places for me, because there is a lot of space for the legs, so I was satisfied.
Next week the regular training is starting again and I am already excited to run the first fast rounds on outdoor track.

The week after
Last week I took really easy and also this week I am only a "fun runner". Enjoying the nature and the company of some relatives and friends. I only took part in one competetion (a 1-hour run), where I ran easy 15.050m. The first 35mins and the last 10mins I was running with my brother (he ended up running 14.250m) and from 35-50mins I secured the win of the small competition.
In general I had a good recovery from the marathon. The first 2 days were tough, but on Wednesday the legs were already quite good and that's why I wanted to participate on home ground in the 1-hour competition.

I also made a few business trips and a lot of family meetings. On Friday I will travel back to Finnland and after that I am starting the serious training again.

running next to my brother (me: with hat and my brother in black) in the 1-hour run in Zwickau

after an easy run with my brother, my nephew and my sister-in-law.

BTW: I am working on a new internet presence, so in future this blog might move to another webpage.

Almost dying on the marathon - but still running even splits.
Hard facts first: the 5K-splits for my marathon debut were: 16:56 / 17:12 / 17:07 / 16:59 / 17:28 /17:10 / 17:15 / 17:15 + 7:45(2,195K). I am quite happy that I did an even split (by definition an even split means that the 2nd half is not more than 1% slower than the 1st half). The weather was sunny and warm (especially at the end, with around 20°C). I couldn't get all my prepared bottles (in fact i got only half of them), had some stitches after 5 and 26 km, but on the other hand I had no stomach problems or other major disturbances.
What an amazing experience this marathon was! I made a lot of crazy competitions in my life (e.g. 24 hours team relay, mountain runs, crazy orienteering races, aqua jogging world championchips, etc.) but the marathon adds yet another kind of exhaustion and fatigue. After around 35K I thought I would not move forward anymore, even if the pace was almost steady. You just think you are standing and you are begging for the next kilometer-sign to come. It's a lot about will-power and muscular pain. After the race I couldn't even make a cool down run (I usually do that, no matter how long or demanding the race was), because after 2 steps my legs were cramping.

The first 10km were absolutely "easy going" and I thought like: "man, this is like a training run - why don't you run faster". I was lucky to run in a group with 4 other guys (last years' German Champion was one of them) because this protected me from going out too fast and making all the work alone. In the group I had the feeling that the pace was ok and I could save some energy. The group splitted after the first hill (km 21) and after the second hill (km 27) it was everyone on his own. So with 15km to go, the race really started. Between kilometer 30 and 37 the sun was burning on the asphalt and there was only one water station. From km35 onward I started feeling the muscles and I couldn't do anything but wait for the finish line. It felt like soooo long and whatever I tried to do, I couldn't increase the pace. Looking to the stopwatch with 100meters to go I saw the time ticking by 2:24:40, ...41, ...42 and I thought I could break the 2:25 but the home stretch was longer as expected.

After all I'm lucky with my debut. Maybe after the Halfmarathon Nationals some people expected a better result, but but ... The experiences I made will help me for preparing and running a faster marathon in autumn. Thanks for all the Congratulations!!
-picture from runnersworld Germany
-report from laufreport

start of the marathon

well, I tried to find another picture, but that's just the way you look like after 42,2 kilometers :)

I'm a marathoner! 2:25:05h and 8th place in Mainz marathon (6th place in German Championships). Race report will follow soon.